The article says Mr Trump wakes at 5.30am and immediately switches on the TV in his bedroom, often inspired by watch he sees to fire off tweets "while propped on his pillow".

Throughout his day, he will spend at least four hours watching cable TV news and sometimes as much as eight, according to aides who spoke to the Times.

He has absolute control of the remote, and will flick between CNN, Fox News Channel and MSNBC - sometimes with the sound on mute - to see the headlines he is making. What his misses, he catches up on later via TiVo.

But Mr Trump has taken issue with the Times' unflattering account, saying the story was "Wrong!" and denying that he watched CNN or MSNBC, which he decried as "Fake News".

This is not the first time Mr Trump has revealed his sensitivity to the idea that he is a TV junkie.

"I do not watch much television," Mr Trump told reporters on his recent trip to Vietnam.

"I know they like to say - people that don't know me - they like to say I watch television. People with fake sources - you know, fake reporters, fake sources.

"But I don't get to watch much television, primarily because of documents. I'm reading documents a lot."

The weekend article also said that Mr Trump misunderstood the limits of his power as president and that he grew frustrated when he couldn't run the country like he would one of his companies.

The Times paints a picture of chief of staff John Kelly doing his best to control the President by getting him into the Oval Office early, thereby reducing his ability to tweet first thing in the day, and vetting the sort of information that makes it to his desk.